The first McDonalds restaurant in the Soviet Union is back in business after having been out of action for three months. It was shut down after Russian health officials cited “administrative violations,” alluding to poor hygiene in the outlets.

There were only a dozen or so people waiting by the front doors
on a frosty morning for the restaurant to open its doors, unlike
in 1990 when intrigued locals queued for hours to get a first
taste of a Big Mac ‘n’ fries. However, the familiar golden arches
just off Tverskaya Street in central Moscow are now open for
business once again.

"We have obtained agreement from the Russian public health
agency to reopen our Pushkin Square restaurant," McDonald's
spokeswoman Svetlana Polyakova told AFP. Another McDonald’s
outlet also reopened just outside the Russian capital on
Wednesday, while another will be serving Big Macs again Thursday.

Speaking in August when the central Moscow outlet, along with
another eight across the country, the government’s health
watchdog Rospotrebnadzor stated: “Multiple
violations of sanitary norms were detected in the sourcing of
food and waste disposal in McDonald’s restaurants during
inspections carried out between the 18th and 20th of
August.”

There are currently 461 McDonald’s restaurants in 85 cities
across Russia, which are sold on a franchise basis to local
investors or companies in the country.

Checks were undertaken on 170 outlets, while McDonalds was
accused of “consumer fraud” as the company had not
correctly stated the energy value of its food, which was one of
around 80 administrative cases, which were filed by the watchdog
in August.

The closure of the outlets happened at around the same time that
Russia introduced retaliatory sanctions on food produce from the
EU and US, after they had introduced sanctions on Russia for what
the West saw as its perceived role in the unrest in Ukraine.

Speaking in August, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said,
"No one is talking about [a ban on McDonald's in Russia] at
all," he told reporters. "It has just happened that the
inspections were completed at the same time (as the ban on
Western goods)."

However, one McDonald’s outlet near the Kremlin on Manezhnaya
Square is still shut, despite being allowed to reopen, though the
company’s spokeswoman, Polyakova, did have some good news for
those wanting to take their kids along for a Happy Meal.

“Yesterday the suspension period introduced by the court
ended, but the restaurant is undergoing reconstruction work.
Therefore it will only reopen in January 2015.”

The fast food giant has not enjoyed the best of times in the second
half of 2014. The company’s profits slid in stores open at least
13 months, taking a worse-than-expected hit in August after
experiencing a fall of 3.7 percent, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based
hamburger chain said in a statement Wednesday. This is the
biggest monthly drop since 2003, according to Bloomberg. Market
analysts had expected a 3.1 percent drop in earnings.

Across Europe, where McDonald’s brings in a hefty 40 percent of
its total earnings, proceeds were down 0.7 percent.